2003-10-21 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- The United States has won agreement from governments across Asia and the Pacific rim to sharply restrict the use and transfer of small shoulder- fired missiles that could be used by al Qaeda and other terrorist groups to shoot down passenger planes, senior Bush administration officials said Monday.

They said the new restrictions on the Manpads -- the acronym for Man- Portable Air Defense Systems, the term used in the defense industry -- such as the American-made Stinger and the Russian-made SA-7, were being written into the final statement that will be issued at this week's economic summit in Bangkok of President Bush and his counterparts from Asian and Pacific nations.

On Monday, Bush sought support from his fellow leaders for his offer to North Korea of a written guarantee against attack, but administration officials said basic questions about the new plan were unresolved, including what the agreement would say and how compliance would be verified.

North Korea did not issue a statement but instead test-fired a short- range, anti-ship missile off its east coast, the first such test since April. A senior administration official labeled the move "a provocative action" aimed at grabbing attention during the summit.

Administration officials said the U.S. proposal regarding shoulder-fired missiles reflected a growing fear among intelligence and law-enforcement agencies that al Qaeda plans new attacks with the weapons, similar to its attempt last November to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane in Mombasa, Kenya. The two Russian-made missiles fired at the Boeing 757 barely missed.

In a meeting with Asian foreign ministers last weekend, Secretary of State Colin Powell called for joint action to control trade in the lightweight missiles, telling his counterparts that "no threat is more serious to aviation. "

American officials said that the statement in Bangkok will likely call for all Asian and Pacific rim nations and the United States to adopt formal controls over their inventories of small surface-to-air missiles and to ban any transfer of the weapons to "non-state end-users," such as guerrilla groups that might be allied to terrorists.

The draft proposal offered by the United States also calls for "strong national regulations on the production, transfer and brokering of these systems" and for joint research on the feasibility of a new generation of lightweight missiles with "launch control features that preclude their unauthorized use."

Weapons specialists say that tens of thousands of shoulder-fired missiles are now circulation on the international arms market, with the price for an older Russian-made SA-7 set at as little as a $5,000. Even the smallest of the Manpads is capable of bringing down a jumbo jet on takeoff or landing.

U.S. officials said it was unclear exactly how much of the American language -- which drew early support from Russia, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, among others -- would be adopted in the final statement in Bangkok.

"But we're convinced that the thrust of this proposal will be reflected in the final communique," a senior official said. "No matter what the final wording, we know that virtually all of our friends in Asia and the Pacific understand the danger that we jointly face from these missiles."

The agreement is not expected to have a major impact on the business of American arms makers, since shoulder-fired missiles make up only a small fraction of this nation's total arms market here and since the U.S. proposal would not affect exports to allied governments.

The accord could have a more serious impact on Asian arms makers that may have considered entering the market for manufacture of the small and relatively unsophisticated missiles.

Edward Laurance, a specialist in conventional weapons at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, said that the U.S. proposal was significant because it reflected a reversal by the administration, which had previously resisted formal international restrictions on the transfer of shoulder-fired missiles.

"I think it's an important step forward," he said in a telephone interview. "With this weapon, there's a growing consensus of the danger that it poses. There doesn't appear to be any interest in a free trade in these missiles."

Intelligence agencies report that al Qaeda probably has dozens of shoulder-fired missiles in its arsenal around the world, including American- made Stingers left behind in Afghanistan from stores of hundreds of the missiles that were supplied to American-based rebels there in the 1980s.

While resisting calls on Capitol Hill for a multibillion-dollar program to install anti-missile technology on U.S. passenger planes, the Bush administration has taken several steps in recent months to deal with the missile threat.

Last month, the administration disclosed that it had decided to commit $100 million to the first phase of development of an anti-missile system for passenger planes, a much larger research investment than the administration had discussed publicly.